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NY State Preps Video Game Legislation

by Terrence O'Brien on April 23, 2007 at 11:52 AM

New York State Senators Martin Golden and Andrew Lanza are preparing to introduce legislation that aims to keep inappropriate video games out of children's hands.

There are three major components to the legislation:

  1. The creation of an advisory board that would monitor the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the current ratings organization that stamps games with content warnings, much like the MPAA does for movies. The board would be charged with assessing the efficacy of the ESRB in keeping video games with adult themes away from children on an ongoing basis.
  2. The second part of the law would make it illegal for video games to be sold without being rated by the ESRB. Vendors caught selling unrated games would be fined.
  3. The creation of a Parent-Teacher Anti-Violence Awareness Program funded by the previously-mentioned fined. The program would educate parents and teachers about ESRB ratings and encourage parental involvement in their children's gaming choices and purchases.

Our take: Laws governing the sale of video games have thus far failed, probably because they focus on censorship instead of education. Unrated movies are filmed and released everyday with out the collapse of the free world, and video games aren't much different. The Parent-Teacher Anti-Violence Awareness Program heads in the right direction by striving to educate and involve the only people who have any control over what their children play -- the parents.


From Daily Tech


Tags: esrb, law, legislation, new york, NewYork, video games, VideoGames

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